Ship asTraveller Material Benefit

[justindurkan]

I can't find the type of ship that a Traveller mustering out may acquire as a material benefit. All other classes that can acquire a ship have the type (far trader, seeker, yacht, etc) specified. The traveller class does not specify a type. At the moment I'm defaulting to a trading ship but it doesn't feel right. Given that the spec for a traveller is kind of a hybrid of scout/trader/rogue is the ship mortgaged, gifted, salvaged or stolen?
What happens if the benefit is acquired multiple times?
Any guidelines on this?

 

[Father Fletch]

The feel I get is that it is any type of ship (up to about 500 dt) but that there is some sort of entailment on the ship. It belongs to a local noble, government, megacorp, bank, and you have duties, payments, subject to recall, route to run, etc. Let them get around, but until the pink slip is in their name, they don't FULLY own it. And per the old LBB rules, multiple receipts of the award, or the pooling of similar awards each take 10 years off of the total mortgage. This means that if you have a total of 5 receipts of "Ship" then the character(s) own it outright, but it is also 40 plus years old. The math works out like this...once to get the ship, each extra up to 4 receipts takes 10 years off of the 40 year mortgage, and the ship is probably depreciated to 1/4 of it's new value. Throw in some negative modifiers to various ships functions, -1 to Astrogation, -1 to recruit high passengers (to funky) +2 to recruit middle passengers (very funky!) and others of that sort.
YMMV and my Cr.02

 

[vegascat]

Such a wonderful way to make mice out of the characters.
a way I found that works is to give the characters a ship based on the number of receipts of ship they get mustering out. Each receipt is worth either 100 tons of ship, or 10 years of payments. 4 receipts could get a 400 ton subsidised merchant with a 40 year morgage on a 40 year old ship. 3 players can add their receipts togather of 7 ship awards for a 200 ton far trader with the loan fully paid and only 80 years old. A single receipt is worth a 40 year old seeker with a 40 year morgage.
Of course, the ship will show the wear and tear of all those years.
This system gives the GM more options to make it interesting for the players.

I never did have players take me up on getting the lease to the Gash over Regina, that would have been to much fun.

 

[Father Fletch]

Vega, I really like the way you broke that down. I have a question for you, have you considered letting the characters spend ship awards to bring the age of a ship down? E.G. 7 awards of ship = 200 ton far trader 20 years paid off and it is 10 years old, with 20 years left on the mortgage? Just Curious...

 

[Liam Devlin]

vegascat:
Howdy Soldier! I use a modified version of the TNE-SHip DM's for mustering out, with a few caveats--
Scouts, earn 1 per term.
Enlisted Navy/Marines earn 1 per term
Officers/Navy/Marines 2 per term.
The crunch comes- you have to muster out with an honorable or general discharge (medical/ etc.). Anything shady/ criminal/ other than honorable, you lose em.
Father Fletch:
Yes, I let them work the tonnages/ age wear and tear out. Except my receipts are worth 50dtns of ship, and 2 years of wear and tear.
Say party of five, AVG 6-8th level, with AVg 4-6 receipts/ Ship's DMs a piece pool it together (20-30/ avg 25 receipts) they can either go one way on age, or on tonnage, or meet it in the middle. Smarter money pays for the smaller ship with least age. say, 4 rcpts= 200dtn ship/ and the rest knock off age/ wear and tear affects.(or -42 years worth).

 

[justindurkan]

Firstly, the question was regarding the ship type that would the award for the Traveller class should represent.

That said, the point is moot. I have found in your replies a far more rational solution.

The idea of mustering out ship awards being vouchers rather than a ship is far a better model for all classes bar the scout and the academic. They being are the only classes that get the loan of a ship. Since every one else has a mortgage to pay, multiple awards should have a cummulatively better effect on the ship acquired. It also allows a party to form a consortium pooling their money and vouchers to buy a ship that suits their mission.

If the voucher represents a portion of a downpayment the party can choose the size and age of the ship they buy paying off with money and vouchers and mortgage the remainder. The mortgage term would be calculated as (40 - ship age).

Thus, the pressure to make a bundle every month is lessened leaving the team more to their own devices (ie. free to adventure)

/JD

 

[Liam Devlin]

This was the model I was introduced to in my CT-playing days, a consortium of our ship shares/ receipts/ vouchers/ DMs, what have you. We did get a decent 400 dtn ship out of the deal, an exploratory Scout vessel with two of its four hard points still on her. The rest we paid for, with the sale of two smaller ships the party's members mustered out with. of course, it was shaped like two donuts ( or a yoyo, mind you), but its was in far better shape than the two ships we did our first adventure with (Twilight's Peak), and far far better than the shape they were in after getting the worst end of a Zhodani Shivva Patrol frigate's attention!
It brought the group closer together, and more goal oriented in paying off the smaller amount of overhead (Though my Scout was sad to see his Serpent-class go).
Glad we've been of service, Justindurkan! C-Ya around these parts, later..

Clear Skies!